A “website” is a known Internet-accessible computer system that provides content provided by a website creator and operator. This content is made available to Internet users via known computer programs called “browsers” that run on a user's computer such as a laptop (ultrabook, netbook) computer, desktop computer, pad computer, smart phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) (e.g. iPods), and the like. Websites provide many different forms of content to users such as textual information, images, videos, audio and sounds, and the like.
A website often contains components such as a header, a footer, a body, columns of textual information, sidebars, image carousels, animated images and many other types of components. These components in some cases are called “content containers” or “content items”, because they serve as distinct regions in a website for holding and displaying specific types of content, which is sometimes dynamically updated by a computer system associated with the website. A website is often hosted on a remote computer system using a web hosting service, sometimes referred to as “in the cloud.” The notion of the “cloud:” may be subject to broad interpretation, however typically refers to practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on a public access network such as the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than the user's local system. Thus, cloud computing has been gaining popularity as a business practice of invoking computing resources that are delivered as a service over a network, typically on a fee-for-services basis, which relieves a user from the expense and effort of maintaining the computing resource. In the case of website hosting, this may refer to a computer system that is accessed by users via an Internet connection, and that the computer system itself is operated by a third party separately from the website's creator, owner, or operator.
A number of business entities provide website construction and hosting services. These services allow their customers (website owners) to access a cloud-based computer system, create a basic website, introduce content into the website, and maintain the website so that it remains active and relevant to users of the website, typically consumers of some sort that are interested in (or in business cases, required to access) a particular website. Known website construction services include those available at the website webs .com, which is owned by the assignee of the present application at the time of its filing.
Many known website construction services have certain limitations in their convenience and ease of operation. Because of the complexity of many websites, extensive skills are often required in order to create and maintain a professional appearing website. In addition to aesthetic skills such as design, color coordination, arrangement of elements, and the like, skills are often needed in complex programming, scripting, and mark-up languages such as HTML (HyperText Markup Language), XML (Extensible Markup Language), HTML5 (a later 5th revision), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), Javascript and others known in the art. Due to such complexities, more user-friendly website construction sites, which are websites themselves, have been provided by some entities.
Some of these more user-friendly website construction sites allow users (website creators or editors) to access a graphical user interface (GUI) for interactions with a hosting site, so as to select components for the website, arrange the components in a pleasing manner, and introduce specific content into the components. A well-designed GUI for website construction would reduce or eliminate the need for complex programming and aesthetic layout skills, so that more people having less capable skill sets can create and maintain impressive and professional-appearing websites.